Padgett Stratemann is now RMSAs San Antonio becomes a bigger player in Texas Business, more national firms are entering this market. A national firm does not start from zero. RMS (http://rsmus.com/) purchased Padgett. This gives the buyer a large client base to start with. Typically the local partners have made a handsome profit on their time at the firm. But seeking to recoup the investment, the buyer typically raises fees knowing some business will be lost. RMS has re located from North Loop 410 to 1604 and 281. Renee Foshee, a tax expert with the firm, is the current SA CPA Society President.

Turner Cleveland PCTerry Cleveland has addressed our students. Two of our graduates are employed with at this firm.

Ridout Barrett CPAsTony Ridout has visited and addressed our students many times. We have placed graduates with Ridout for several years.

Financial Consulting Firms

Aventine Hill Partners, Inc.Beth Hair CEO founded Aventine in San Antonio in 2009. The firm now has offices in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. She formerly was with RGP.

Resource Global ProfessionalsSusan Hough has been to campus and spoken to our students. She is the San Antonio Manager of RGP. RGP and Aventine are not CPA firms. Instead they offer contract specialists for firms needing specific tasks such as compliance or Controllerships.

Accounting Information

Acounting Today This is an independent site for accounting news regarding firms and current issues.

Accounting Certifications

Certified Information Systems Auditor CISANow that everything is literally on the computer and cyber security becomes a prominent issue, I see more and more accounting professionals with this designation. Previously known as the Information Systems and Audit Control Association, it now goes by the acronym ISACA.

Geo Politics

Institute for the Study of WarThe Institute for the Study of War advances an informed understanding of military affairs through reliable research, trusted analysis, and innovative education. We are committed to improving the nation’s ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats in order to achieve U.S. strategic objectives. ISW is a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization.

StratforThis Austin, TX based site was begun by an ex Texas State Professor.

Socionomics

July 31, 2007

As many of you may know the new Dallas Cowboys coach is Wade Phillips, son of Bum Phillips, former Houston Oilers Coach. While Bum made some great contributions to football, my first place award to him goes for this piece written about what it means to be Texan. So for all we native Texans and those of you that just got here as fast as you could, here goes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TEXAS -- FROM BUM PHILLIPS

Being Texan by Bum Phillips

Dear Friends,

Last year, I wrote a small piece about what it means to me to be a Texan. My friends know it means about damned near everything. Anyway, this fella asked me to reprint what I'd wrote and I didn't have it. So I set out to think about rewriting something. I considered writing about all the great things I love about Texas. There are way too many things to list. I can't even begin to do it justice. Lemme let you in on my short list.

It starts with The Window at Big Bend, which in and of itself is proof of God. It goes to Lake Sam Rayburn where my Granddad taught me more about life than fishin, and enough about fishin to last a lifetime. I can talk about Tyler, and Longview, and Odessa and Cisco, and Abilene and Poteet and every place in between. Every little part of Texas feels special. Every person who ever flew over the Lone Star thinks of Bandera or Victoria or Manor or wherever they call "home" as the best little part of the best state.

So I got to thinkin about it, and here's what I really want to say. Last year, I talked about all the great places and great heroes who make Texas what it is. I talked about Willie and Waylon and Michael Dell and Michael DeBakey and my Dad and LBJ and Denton Cooley. I talked about everybody that came to mind. It took me sitting here tonight reading this stack of emails and thinkin' about where I've been and what I've done since the last time I wrote on this occasion to remind me what it is about Texas that is really great.

You see, this last month or so I finally went to Europe for the first time. I hadn't ever been, and didn't too much want to. But you know all my damned friends are always talking about "the time they went to Europe." So, I finally went. It was a hell of a trip to be sure. All they did when they saw me was say the same thing, before they'd ever met me. "Hey cowboy, we love Texas." I guess the hat tipped em off. But let me tell you what, they all came up with a smile on their faces. You know why? They knew for damned sure that I was gonna be nice to em. They knew it cause they knew I was from Texas. They knew something that hadn't even hit me. They knew Texans, even though they'd never met one.

That's when it occurred to me. Do you know what is great about Texas? Do you know why when my friend Beverly and I were trekking across country to see 15 baseball games we got sick and had to come home after 8? Do you know why every time I cross the border I say, "Lord, please don't let me die in _____"?

Do you know why children in Japan can look at a picture of the great State and know exactly what it is about the same time they can tell a rhombus from a trapezoid? I can tell you that right quick. You. The same spirit that made 186 men cross that line in the sand in San Antonio damned near 165 years ago is still in you today. Why else would my friend send me William Barrett Travis' plea for help in an email just a week ago, or why would Charles Stenciled ask me to reprint a Texas Independence column from a year ago?

What would make my friend Elizabeth say, "I don't know if I can marry a man who doesn't love Texas like I do?" Why in the hell are 1,000 people coming to my house this weekend to celebrate a holiday for what used to be a nation that is now a state? Because the spirit that made that nation is the spirit that burned in every person who founded this great place we call Texas, and they passed it on through blood or sweat to every one of us.

You see, that spirit that made Texas what it is, is alive in all of us, even if we can't stand next to a cannon to prove it, and it's our responsibility to keep that fire burning. Every person who ever put a "Native Texan" or an "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast a could" sticker on his car understands. Anyone who ever hung a map of Texas on their wall or flew a Lone Star flag on their porch knows what I mean.

My Dad's buddy Bill has an old saying. He says that some people were forged of a hotter fire. Well, that's what it is to be Texan. To be forged of a hotter fire.

To know that part of Colorado was Texas. That part of New Mexico was Texas. That part of Oklahoma was Texas. Yep. Talk all you want. Part of what you got was what we gave you. To look at a picture of Idaho or Istanbul and say, "what the Hell is that?" when you know that anyone in Idaho or Istanbul who sees a picture of Texas knows damned good and well what it is. It isn't the shape, it isn't the state, it's the state of mind. You're what makes Texas.

The fact that you would take 15 minutes out of your day to read this, because that's what Texas means to you, that's what makes Texas what it is. The fact that when you see the guy in front of you litter you honk and think, "Sonofabitch. Littering on MY highway."

When was the last time you went to a person's house in New York and you saw a big map of New York on their wall? That was never. When did you ever drive through Oklahoma and see their flag waving on four businesses in a row? Can you even tell me what the flag in Louisiana looks like? I damned sure can't.

But I bet my ass you can't drive 20 minutes from your house and not see a business that has a big Texas flag as part of its logo. If you haven't done business with someone called All Tex something or Lone Star somebody or other, or Texas such and such, you hadn't lived here for too long.

When you ask a man from New York what he is, he'll say a stockbroker, or an accountant, or an ad exec. When you ask a woman from California what she is, she'll tell you her last name or her major. Hell either of em might say "I'm a republican," or they might be a democrat. When you ask a Texan what they are, before they say, "I'm a Methodist," or "I'm a lawyer," or "I'm a Smith," they tell you they're a Texan. I got nothin' against all those other places, and Lord knows they've probably got some fine folks, but in your gut you know it just like I do, Texas is just a little different.

So tomorrow when you drive down the road and you see a person broken down on the side of the road, stop and help. When you are in a bar in California, buy a Californian a drink and tell him it's for Texas Independence Day. Remind the person in the cube next to you that he wouldn't be here enjoying this if it weren't for Sam Houston, and if he or she doesn't know the story, tell them.

When William Barrett Travis wrote in 1836 that he would never surrender and he would have Victory or Death, what he was really saying was that he and his men were forged of a hotter fire. They weren't your average every day men.

Well, that is what it means to be a Texan. It meant it then, and that's why it means it today. It means just what all those people North of the Red River accuse us of thinking it means. It means there's no mountain that we can't climb. It means that we can swim the Gulf in the winter. It means that Earl Campbell ran harder and Houston is bigger and Dallas is richer and Alpine is hotter and Stevie Ray was smoother and God vacations in Texas.

It means that come Hell or high water, when the chips are down and the Good Lord is watching, we're Texans by damned, and just like in 1836, that counts for something. So for today at least, when your chance comes around, go out and prove it. It's true because we believe it's true. If you are sitting wondering what the Hell I'm talking about, this ain't for you.

But if the first thing you are going to do when the Good Lord calls your number is find the men who sat in that tiny mission in San Antonio and shake their hands, then you're the reason I wrote this tonight, and this is for you. So until next time you hear from me, God Bless and Happy Texas Independence Day.

May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies and quick to make friends. But, rich or poor, quick or slow, may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.

Apple has now sold more than three billion songs on iTunes. Thsi puts them past Target and Amazon as music sellers. UNT Dallas student Ambrose came by with his iPhone yesterday and indeed it is just as cool as it appears in that tv ad. A few years back Mike Dell suggeseted collapsing Apple and distributing proceeds to the shareholders, so much for his expertise on the high tech markets eh?

My answer is yes, but here is studied report on it from the Wall Street Journal. Notice how market tops reflect a totally different emotional display than market bottoms. Now Rupert Murdoch is spending $5 B for the Wall Street Journal, the Blackstone Group is going public, the real estate building boom continues non stop in Miami and Las Vegas.

This is because a market moving up that creates welalth also creates good vibrations as the Beach Boys might say. Consider the mergers in Oil Field Services. These mergers are taking place at all time high prices in the business, no one was merging in 1998 when oil was 12 bucks. And so the stock market continues to mock the traditional supply and demand economic theory. Traditional theory says that consumers want to buy goods at lower prices and that they avoid buying at higher prices.

Click on the chart of RIG at left to see what I mean. RIG is merging with GSF, both are in nose bleed territory having risen from the 20s to triple digits in the case of RIG. Such is the nature of popular culture and the stock market, people buy and merge high,they avoid such mergers when prices are low.

Big Brokerage firms like J P Morgan and Goldman Sachs are collaborating on leasing new lavish trading rooms in NYC, all in the same building. This would never happen at a market bottom, only the inclusionary feelings of a bull market would allow it.

Prediction-I see a coming market meltdown toward October, expect the current rash of good feelings to darken by then.

July 27, 2007

Arthur Andersen misrepresented Enron's statement, got tried for document destruction, and later was exonerated by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile all 85,000 employees had to find new jobs.

The partners and principals in the KPMG tax shelter case got heaved overboard after no doubt receiving bonuses for
selling tax shelters. KPMG paid a hefty non deductible fine of $450 M and was barred from even paying the legal fees for the
accused. That last action was just overturned. Interestingly KPMG was never convicted of anything.

Now we have Bear Stearns who claims to be an investment banker who managed to lose not just some but all of the money
in two of their so called hedge funds. Did anyone lose their job, did anyone get fined, even the stock price has not suffered much.

Gee shouldn't someone at Bear be headed out the door, if not to jail? No doubt Jeff Skilling is wondering from his jail cell
what the difference is between worthless Enron stock and a B. S. (interesting abbreviation don't you think) hedge fund?

My point is that Skillng got a long jail term, Mr. Fastow got ten years, Ms. Fastow got one year,
yet Bear Stearrns also lost 100% of inveator money and kept the commissions!

D R Horton had an operating loss of $823.8 M for the quarter anded June 30. But it also took write offs and charges, read impairments, of more than $1.27 Billion in the same quarter. J P Morgan commented that this was a huge step up from previous quarters, the impairments that is.

We study accounting to understand such things. Firms must compare carrying value with what the projected future value of assets will be. If the carrying value is less, an impairment charge is dictated. How did this happen to Horton, well think about what is on their balance sheet. The write offs were charges to cost of sales, inventory impairments, write offs of deposits, land purchase contracts and goodwill impairment. Which means that their inventory of homes and land are not worth what is shown on the books. Sales are down 30% from the same quarter last year so prospects are getting worse not better.

Now none of this should surprise a regular reader of this blog, I have been detailing the Sub Prime Mortgage Wreck for some time. What is surprising is how Mr. Bernake at the FED and Mr. Paulson at Treasury keep insisting nothing is wrong.

The DOW was down 450 points at one time Thursday, and closed down 300 or so. Look for a recovery over the first week of August but I suspect the top is in for financial assets, I will be posting my last two newspaper columns on these and other topics.

July 25, 2007

That was the angry demand by a young fan of one of the players involved in fixing the 1919 World Series.No one wants to watch a fixed game though that does not seem to dim enthusiasm for horse racing, long a fixture of mob involvement. And of course Pete Rose ruined his career with gambling. Now Dallas Radio Personality Mike Gallagher looks at the case of an NBA referee accused of gambling and perhaps fixing games. Bad behavior in the NBA seems the norm these days. But if the games turn out to be fixed, what is the point of watching?

Meanwhile Mike Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, faces dog fighting charges in Federal Court. Will Vick actually face trial? A conviction would mean the end of his NFL career. That rarely happens with big time jock stars, at least as long as they are winning.

I bring this up as yet another Ethics Issue. How much longer do sports fans tolerate this bad behavior among its stars?

July 23, 2007

The Sunday DMN reports that Donovan Collins the second ranking officer in the DISD police department has a questionable college degree on his resume. He applied for the top job in the dept and listed a Bach Degree from Canyon College in Idaho. Well guess what Canyon is not accredited by anyone recognized by the US Dept of Education.

Mr. Collins story was that he paid $2500, took half a dozen courses on line and presto, got a degree, only later did he discover Canyon was not accredited. Gee, a policeman fell for that scheme? Worse, Collins claims 20 years experience with DISD police starting in 1986. But the DISD Police Dept did not exist until 2003. Now Collins may be charged with falsifying a resume, a Class B misdemeanor.

Regular readers will recall that last fall the DISD discovered that their Ethics Czar claimed to be a CPA yet he did not possess a current CPA certificate. And of course this is the same DISD that had the massive credit card scandals. There are several points to be made here.

Auditing requires professional skepticism. Basically this is the show me philosophy associated with folks from Missouri. This is why my job required submission of my transcript directly from UT Austin to the Provost at UNT, as do all state university jobs. Misrepresenting degrees is so widespread this is now required, the person submitting is not allowed to touch the transcript.

There will of course me much more of this with Canyon Colleges appearing daily on the internet and a confusing array of so called accrediting bodies.

It looks as bad or worse in this instance for the DISD police to suffer such an incident. Clearly their lack of investigative procedure is in serious question. How can we trust them to do internal investigations of the school when they cannot police themselves?

Be glad you are pursuing a real degree at one of the top universities in Texas!

Bill Gross runs the biggest bond funds on the planet at PIMCO. So Bill's Thoughts on bonds are worth reading. In this excerpt he suggests, as I have in class, that the problem in real estate wil not be limited to just a crash in a couple of Bear Stearns funds. No the real problem is in thousands of speculations in Miami and Las Vegas as well as folks that are over their heads in main street USA.

I suggest you book mark the PIMCO site map for reference on learning more about bonds.

July 19, 2007

The media seems only interested in covering the lead candidates. Too bad because we are not likely to get any innovative ideas from them, just the status quo. In this article, Sam Brownback explanis his concept of a flat tax. I would go further and keep taxes on capital gains at nothing or near nothing or at least let folks match all gains with all losses. But as Brownback notes, the tax code is many times longer than any other book you can mention, countries going to a flat tax are showing greater growth than those that have not. So it is just a matter of whether politicians will forgo dispensing favors to voters via the tax code. So far they have not shown any proclivity to do that.

July 18, 2007

Did you know there was a college cost reduction act? Read about it here., THis is the first effort at finally putting colleges that keeep raising tuition on an alert status and endangering their ability to get student lonas, about time I would say. And there are interesting repayments schedules modeled after other countries.